TOI correspondent from London: A UK parliamentary group says it will raise the issue of persecution of Hindus in Pakistan with UK’s govt and in parliament.
The move comes after British Hindu advocacy group INSIGHT UK presented a report to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Hindus outlining attacks on religious freedom and threats to safety faced by Hindu communities in Pakistan.
“One suggestion was a letter to the foreign office requesting a meeting highlighting the atrocities against minorities so that the department can raise the concerns with the current establishment in Pakistan. There was also a discussion on requesting to curtail aid to Pakistan,” the APPG secretariat spokesperson said.
The UK is one of the largest providers of overseas aid to Pakistan. The report “Religious Persecution of Hindus in Pakistan” calls on the British govt to make this aid “conditional on progress” and for some funding to be ring-fenced for organisations in Pakistan that defend minority rights.
It also calls on UK’s govt to commission an official report every six months on the socio-economic situation of minority communities in Pakistan and to provide asylum pathways for religious minorities in Pakistan who have suffered abuse.
It outlines the historical and ongoing persecution of Hindus in Pakistan, whose population has fallen from 14.6% of the population pre-1947 to 1.7% today.
It documents how Hindus who fled Pakistan because of the 1965 India-Pakistan war were stripped by the state of their ancestral property and agricultural livelihood, through enemy property legislation, forcing them into a cycle of poverty.
It points out how structural features of the Pakistani state entrench second-class status for minorities, such as the Constitution which stipulates that both the prime minister and president must be Muslim. It also covers attacks on Hindu temples and forced marriages and forced conversions of Hindus and Christians in Pakistan. Yet, it notes, “international media coverage has been notably scarce”.